Timeline Kurdistan
Return to home
History: http://www.akakurdistan.com/
History: http://www.humanrights.de/~kurdweb/kwd/english/history/origin-e.html
Links: http://www.stm.it/D.Baggio/kurdlink.htm
WHA: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/index-b.html
Kurds are an ancient people whose language is
related to Farsi, which is spoken in Iran.
(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A7)
Almost all Kurds are Sunni Muslims.
(SFC, 9/2/96, p.A12)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.12)
Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, centered in the poor
northeastern provinces of Hasakeh and Qamishli, wedged between the
borders of Turkey and Iraq. Areas of the capital Damascus and
Syria's largest city of Aleppo also have sizable Kurdish
communities. The Kurdish ethnic group stretches into contiguous
areas of Turkey, Iraq and Iran.
(AP, 4/18/12)
1169 Mar 23,
Shirkuh, Kurd General, vizier of Cairo, Saladin's uncle, died.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1193 Mar 3, Saladin [Salah
ed-Din]) Yusuf ibn Ayyub (52), Kurdish sultan of Egypt and Syria
(1175-1193), died.
(WUD, 1994 p.1261)(SC, 3/3/02)(SSFC, 9/29/02,
p.M6)
1835 Lt. Henry Creswicke
Rawlinson (25) began examining the ancient inscriptions on the rock
of Behistun in the Kurdish foothills of the Zagros mountain range.
He soon found that they had been made to honor Darius the Great,
Persian ruler in the 5th century BCE.
(ON, 4/04, p.7)
1894 Nov 16, 6,000 Armenians
were massacred by Turks in Kurdistan.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1894-1896 Thousands of Armenians were massacred by
the Turks after attempts for autonomy and self-defense failed. This
issue was then referred to as the “Armenian Question.”
(Compuserve Online Enc. / Armenia)
1915 Kurdish tribes took part
in the mass slaughter by the Ottomans of around 1 million Armenians.
(Econ, 12/4/10, p.64)
1917 Lord Curzon of Britain
stated: “No Kurd appears to represent more than his own clan.”
(WSJ, 11/28/97, p.A8)
1920 Aug 10, The Ottoman
sultanate at Constantinople signed the Treaty of Sevres with the
Allies and associated powers. It promised a homeland for the Kurds,
but the nationalist government in Ankara did not sign the treaty. It
set the borders of Turkey recognized Armenia as an independent
state.
(SFC, 2/17/99, p.A10)(EWH, 4th ed,
p.1086)(www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/versa/sevres1.html)
1920-1990 Turkey virtually outlawed the Kurdish
language.
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A1)
1923 Jul 24, The Treaty of
Lausanne, which settled the boundaries of modern Greece and Turkey,
was concluded in Switzerland. It replaced the Treaty of Sevres and
divided the lands inhabited by the Kurds between Turkey, Iraq and
Syria. Article 39 allowed Turkish nationals to use any language they
wished in commerce, public and private meetings, and publications.
The treaty specifically protected the rights of the Armenian, Greek
and Jewish communities. The former provinces of Baghdad, Basra and
Mosul were lumped together to form Iraq. Both countries agreed to a
massive exchange of religious minorities. Christians were deported
from Turkey to Greece and Muslims from Greece to Turkey. A Muslim
community of at least 100,000 was allowed in northern Greece. In
2006 Bruce Clark authored “Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions
that Forged Modern Greece and Turkey.”
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A17)(AP, 7/24/97)(SSFC,
12/22/02, p.A14)(Econ, 3/19/05, Survey p.9)(Econ, 10/14/06,
p.50)(Econ, 12/9/06, p.92)(Econ, 10/16/10, p.72)
1924 Mar 3, Kemal Ataturk
forced the abolition of the Muslim caliphate through the protesting
assembly and banned all Kurdish schools, publications and
associations.
(WSJ, 2/11/99, p.A24)
1925 Apr 28, Kurd rebels
surrendered to Turkish army.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1930-1937 Kurdish revolts in Turkey were harshly
suppressed.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A14)
1936-1939 Turkish forces used a bombing and
strafing campaign to crush a Kurdish rebellion. Some 13,806 people
were killed in the southeastern town of Dersim, now known as
Tunceli. The military's campaign in Dersim was followed by forced
migrations and massacres as well as policies of assimilation.
(AP, 11/23/11)
1938 Turkey’s army crushed a
rebellion in the southeastern province of Tunceli and villagers were
burned alive of gassed. The government later admitted that some
15,000 Alevi Kurds died. Survivors spoke of least twice as many
dead. In 2010 documentary titled ‘Two Locks of Hair: The Missing
Girls of Dersim,’ which sheds light on the painful incidents of the
1938 Dersim Operation, four 80-year-old women tell of the trauma
they experienced during the tragedy.
(Econ, 4/30/11,
p.55)(www.kurdishcinema.com/DersimsLostGirls.html)
1945 The Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP) was founded by Mullah Mustafa Barzani. He played a major
role in establishing the short-lived Kurdish Republic of Mehabad,
“Red” Kurdistan, in Iran. In the 30s and 40s he had organized “Pesh
merga” guerrillas from clans in the Zagros region.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)(WSJ, 12/20/02, p.A14)
1946 Mustafa Barzani fled with
hundreds of followers to the Soviet Union.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)
1961 Syria revoked the
citizenship of its native Kurds.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.46)(http://tinyurl.com/7zamn)
1962 Jun 23, The Syrian
government conducted a special population census only for the
province of Jazira which was predominantly Kurdish. As a result,
around 120,000 Kurds in Jazira were arbitrarily categorized as
aliens.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurds_in_Syria)
1970 Mar 11, Iraq’s Ba’ath
Party agreed to an autonomy accord with the Kurd nation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Kurdistan)
1974 Mar 11, Iraq's "Law for
Autonomy in the Area of Kurdistan" was promulgated. It stipulated
that: "The Kurdish language shall be the official language of
education for Kurds ... Kurdish shall be the official language of
education for the Kurds."
(www.jafi.org.il/education/actual/iraq/4.html)
1975 Mar 6, OPEC held a meeting
in Algiers attended for the first time by its members’ top leaders.
Here the Algiers Accord between Baghdad and Teheran put an end to
their border dispute and brought all Iranian help to the Kurdish
rebellion to a halt. The United States abruptly withdrew its support
for the Kurds and the rebellion collapsed. Many thousands of Kurdish
fighters and their families were forced to flee to Iran to escape
the pursuing Iraqi army.
(http://mondediplo.com/2002/10/06timeline)(SFC,
11/19/07, p.A11)
1975 Mar 9, Iraq launched an
offensive against the rebellious Kurds.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1975 Mar 18, Mulla Mustafa gave
the order to the Kurdish army to abandon the struggle. This time
round, Mulla Mustafa obtained refuge in the United States.
(www.tamilnation.org/intframe/india/kurds.htm#a1)
1975 Jun, The Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan (PUK) broke off from the KDP after Iran and Iraq
resolved a border dispute and the US ended support for a Kurdish
rebellion. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) was founded by
Jalal Talabani as a breakaway faction of the KDP. The PUK favored
armed struggle with other Kurdish groups against Saddam Hussein.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/country_profiles/2893067.stm)(SFC,
9/4/96, p.A7)
1978 In Turkey Abdullah Ocalan
and some fellow Turkish university students founded the Kurdistan
Worker’s Party, PKK. It was based on a Marxist, separatist platform
that targeted Kurdish landlords as well as Turkish agents.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A11)(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A7)(Econ,
11/17/07, p.100)
1979 Mar 3, Mustafa Barzani
(b.1903), Iranian Kurd leader (KDP), died in Washington, DC. He was
succeeded by his son Massoud.
(SFC, 9/4/96, A7)(WSJ, 12/20/02,
p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Barzani)
1979 Aug 18, Iran Ayatollah
Khomeini sent the army to attack and occupy Paveh, Sanandaj and
Saghez. Having defeated the Kurds in the cities, he appointed
Khalkhali, as head of security for Kurdistan, who proceeded with a
series of summary trials and executions.
(www.sarbazan.com/Massacre.asp)
1979 Aug 23, Iranian troops
entered Iraqi Kurdish territory.
(www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373658&printthis=1)
1979 Aug 27, In Sanandaj, Iran,
11 Kurdish prisoners were executed by a firing squad following a 30
minute trial under Shiite cleric Sadegh Khalkhali. Jahangir Razmi, a
photographer for Iran’s independent Ettela’at newspaper, captured
the execution on film. Within hours an anonymous photo of the
execution ran across 6 columns of the paper. On Sep 8 the newspaper
was seized by the Foundation for the Disinherited, a state-owned
holding company. On April 14, 1980, the photo won a Pulitzer Prize.
In 2006 Razmi made public 27 images from the execution that he had
kept hidden.
{Iran, Kurds, Photography}
(WSJ, 12/2/06, p.A1)
1980 Abdullah Ocalan (b.1948),
leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) crossed the border to
Syria just before the September 12 Turkish military coup.
(WSJ, 3/7/97, p.A10)(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A7)
1980-1991 Publications in Kurdish were banned in
Turkey.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.A12)
1983 Turkey began battling a
Kurdish insurgency in the southeast.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)
1984 Abdullah Ocalan, founder
of the PKK, turned the group toward armed struggle.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A11)
1984-1996 Turkey was grappling with an 12-year
old Kurdish insurgency. More than 21,000 people have died since
fighting began.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-6)(SFC, 9/6.96, p.A13)
1985 Mehmed Uzun published his
1st attempt at a modern Kurdish novel: “You.” He followed it with an
anthology of Kurdish literature in the Kermanci dialect.
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A16)
1987-1988 Some 50-100 thousand Kurds were killed
by poisonous gas from Iraqi forces. The Hussein regime bulldozed
some 4,000 ethnic Kurd villages due to suspicions of Kurds siding
with Iran.
(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B6)(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A11)
1988 Mar 16-1988 Mar 17, Iraqi
jets dropped a variety of chemical weapons on the Kurdish town of
Halabja and some 5-7,000 residents were killed immediately. The
Kurdish city of Halabja, held by Iranian troops and Iraqi Kurdish
guerrillas allied with Tehran, was bombed by Iraq. Estimates of
casualties varied from several hundred to several thousand.
(SFC, 7/1/02,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack)
1988 The Iraqi assault on
Kurdish villages was part of a campaign known as Anfal. Estimates
held as many as 182,000 Kurds dead or missing.
(SFC, 4/18/03, p.A18)
1989 Jul 13, Abdul Rahman
Qassemlu, Kurd leader in Iran, was murdered.
(http://tinyurl.com/ecm98)
1991 Jan 17, The Persian Gulf
War (Operation Desert Storm) began as Coalition planes struck
targets in Iraq and Kuwait. The first Iraqi Scud missile attacks on
Israel were launched. There were reports of death and injury, and
possibly even chemical weapons being used. For a few tense hours, it
looked as though Israel would retaliate against Iraq, causing the
allied coalition to break up. Six months of preparation and
diplomacy might be undone by a few poorly aimed, 1950s-vintage
ballistic missiles. Later that evening, U.S. Patriot surface-to-air
missiles were launched against the incoming Scuds, and for the first
time in history, a ballistic missile was shot down by another
missile. The use of Patriot missiles in Israel's defense helped to
keep that country out of the Gulf War, thereby safeguarding the
integrity of the American-European-Arab coalition.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)(SFEC,12/797, p.A1,16) (HN,
1/17/99)(HNPD, 1/17/99)
1991 Mar 2, The Kurds rose up
against Iraqi forces but were crushed by Iraqi armor that killed
50,000 and forced more than a million Kurds to flee to Turkey and
Iran.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)
1991 Apr 2, Iraqi state media
reported that only a few more days were needed to stamp out fighting
with Kurdish rebels, who reported renewed skirmishes around the
strategic oil center of Kirkuk.
(AP, 4/2/01)
1991 Apr 5, The UN adopted
Resolution 688, which condemned Sadam Hussein’s suppression of the
Kurds and demanded respect and political rights for all citizens. A
safe haven was established above Iraq’s 36th parallel.
(www.fas.org/news/un/iraq/sres/sres0688.htm)(SFC,
9/4/96, p.A7)
1991 Apr 7, US military planes
began airdropping supplies to Kurdish refugees who were facing
starvation and exposure in the snow-covered mountains of northern
Iraq. The United States warned Iraq not to interfere with the relief
effort.
(AP, 4/7/01)
1991 Apr 10, The US and Britain
imposed a no-fly zone to protect 3 Kurdish provinces in northern
Iraq.
(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A11)
1991 Apr 12, Kurdish rebels
reported the Iraqi army was attacking guerrillas in northern Iraq.
(AP, 4/12/01)
1991 Apr 16, President Bush
announced that US forces would be sent into northern Iraq to assist
Kurdish refugees.
(AP, 4/16/01)
1991 Apr 20, US Marines landed
in northern Iraq to begin building the first center for Kurdish
refugees on Iraqi territory. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the US
commander of Operation Desert Storm, left Saudi Arabia for home.
(AP, 4/20/01)
1991 Apr 24, A Kurdish rebel
leader announced the guerrillas had reached an agreement in
principle with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to end the Kurds’
two-week rebellion.
(AP, 4/24/01)
1991 Apr 27, A group of 250
Kurds became the first refugees to move into a new US-built camp in
northern Iraq.
(AP, 4/27/01)
1991 In Turkey a ban on the use
of the Kurdish language in unofficial settings was lifted.
(SFC, 2/18/99, p.A10)
1992 Iraqi Kurdistan held free
elections, but the Kurdish government was never formally recognized.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A14)
1992 Rival Kurdish leaders
Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani expressed unity. They agreed to
share power and held elections where each faction received 50% of
the vote.
(SFC, 9/1/96, p.A8)
1992 Musa Anter, author of an
early Turkish-Kurdish dictionary, was murdered by assassins. He had
taught Mehmed Uzun to write Kurdish while they were in jail.
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A16)
1993 May 24, Separatist Kurdish
rebels fatally shot 33 Turkish soldiers and two civilians after
forcing them and about two dozen other persons off a bus in the
southeastern province of Bingol. This ended a unilateral cease-fire
and led the military to intensify a campaign to annihilate the PKK.
Testimony in 1999 by Abdullah Ocalan said a regional PKK commander
carried out the slaying.
(www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-948140.html)(SFC,
6/2/99, p.C2)
1993 Jul 5, Kurd guerrillas
murdered 32 villagers in East Turkey.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1993-1996 Turkey spent $50 million on drug dealers
and assassins to kill a Kurdish rebel leader and others considered
threats to the state. Abdullah Ocalan, a Kurdish rebel leader in
Syria, was targeted as was Dursun Karatas, a leftist terrorist in
Europe.
(SFC, 1/24/98, p.A8)
1994 Jul 26, The Turkish air
force bombed Kurds in Iraq and 79 people were killed.
(www.hrw.org/reports/1994/turkey2/)
1996 Apr 18, Kani Xulam,
alleged head of the Kurdish guerilla group, the Kurdistan Worker’s
Party PKK, was held in jail in Washington DC on charges of passport
fraud.
(SFC, 4/18/96, p.a-15)
1996 May 16, UN and Iraqi
officials have reached a tentative agreement to resume oil sales of
$4 billion a year to buy food and medicine. The food for oil program
mandated that 13% of the UN resources go to northern Kurdish areas.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-9)(SFC, 9/3/01, p.A9)
1996 Jun 30, A young Kurdish
rebel disguised as a pregnant woman blew herself up in the midst of
a military ceremony and killed 9 soldiers.
(SFC, 7/2/96, p.A12)
1996 Aug 31, Rival Kurdish
forces under leaders Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union and
Massoud Barzani of the Kurdish Democratic Party clashed. Barzani’s
forces participated with Sadam Hussein’s troops in taking Irbil, a
Talabani stronghold. Talabani’s forces were reportedly assisted by
Iran.
(SFC, 9/1/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug, The KDP invited
Saddam into northern Iraq.
(USAT, 3/24/99, p.18A)
1996 Sep 4, The US again
launched Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraqi air defense sites. The
2nd launch was deemed a success after the first launch failed to
destroy intended targets. The Tomahawks were made by Hughes Aircraft
Co. and cost about $1 mil apiece. Kurdish leader Barzani wrote a
latter to Sec. of State Christopher Warren and asked that the US
mediate.
(SFC, 4/9/96, A1)(SFC, 9/5/96, p.A8)
1996 Sep 5, Turkey declared a
new security zone inside northern Iraq and air attacks were staged
on suspected Kurdish rebel bases.
(SFC, 9/6.96, p.A13)
1996 Oct 13, In Iraq the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) regained Sulaymaniyah, its former
headquarters.
(SFC, 10/14/96, p.A12)
1996 Oct 29, In Turkey a
Kurdish separatist suicide team of 2 killed themselves, 3 policemen
and a civilian in the town of Sivas.
(SFC, 10/30/96, p.A10)
1996 Dec 27, In France the
foreign ministry said that it would no longer participate in the
Operation Provide Comfort after the end of the year. The operation
was a multi-national air reconnaissance effort to safeguard Kurdish
civilians in northern Iraq.
(SFC, 12/28/96, p.A12)
1997 May 18, In Turkey on the
5th day of a military offensive, the military reported 1,081
guerillas killed as 25-50 thousand Turkish troops crossed the Iraqi
border to attack rebels of the Kurdistan workers Party (PKK).
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A14)
1997 May, Turkish commando
units took control of the Bikhayr mountains used by Kurdish rebels
as an escape route into Syria.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Jun 26, Turkey announced
the end of the 10-week Operation Hammer, its cross-border operation
against the Kurds. The Turks reported to have lost 113 men and it
was estimated that 3,000 guerrillas of the PKK were killed.
(WSJ, 6/27/97, p.A13)
1997 Jul 20, Turkish troops
killed 50 Kurdish guerrillas in the southeast. That raised the
weekly total to 84.
(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A9)
1997 Sep 25, Iraq demanded that
Turkey pull back some 15,000 troops who crossed its border in
pursuit of Kurdistan Workers Party guerrillas.
(WSJ, 9/26/97, p.A1)
1997 Sep 29, Turkish planes
attacked Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq and drove the
guerrillas toward the Iran border.
(WSJ, 9/30/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct 3, Turkish jets bombed
escape routes used by Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Over the last
13 days the army reported 415 rebels dead vs. 6 of its own soldiers.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Nov 28, The book “After
Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? My Encounters With Kurdistan” by
Jonathan C. Randal was reviewed.
(WSJ, 11/28/97, p.A8)
1997 Dec 27, Some 825 illegal
immigrants, mostly Kurds, were rescued by Italian tugboats from the
Turkish ship Ararat. They were attempting to smuggle into Italy from
Turkey.
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.A19)
1998 Feb 17, A UN refugee
agency reported that 6,800 Kurds have fled their homes in northern
Iraq following reported Turkish air raids on rebel positions.
(SFC, 2/18/98, p.C3)
1998 Apr 13, Turkish army
forces captured Semdin Sakik, a field commanded of the PKK,
Kurdistan Workers Party, in a secret raid in northern Iraq.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.C12)
1998 Apr 15, Turkish troop
clashed with Kurdish separatists near the Iraqi border and claimed
to have killed 64 with a loss of 11.
(WSJ, 4/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 8, It was reported
that Turkish soldiers had killed 37 Kurdish insurgents in the
southeast provinces of Sirnak, Siirt, and Diyarbakir.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 16, In Turkey some
2000 soldiers were flown into northern Iraq to hunt Kurdish rebels
who fled there after killing 22 Turkish troops in a raid.
(SFC, 7/17/98, p.A16)
1998 Oct 3, Turkey sent some
10,000 troops into northern Iraq to attack Kurdish rebels.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 21, Turkey and Syria
signed an accord whereby Syria agreed to brand the Kurdish Workers
Party (PKK) as a terrorist group.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.C5)
1998 Oct 23, In Turkey 5
Kurdish rebels burned themselves to death in loyalty to their leader
Abdullah Ocalan, who was expelled from Syria.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 12, Abdullah Ocalan,
head of the PKK, was arrested in Rome.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A11)
1998 Nov 17, In Turkey a
Kurdish guerrilla killed herself and wounded 6 others in a suicide
bombing in Yuksekova. In Moscow 2 men were seriously injured when
they set themselves on fire, and in Rome some 10,000 marched to
oppose the extradition of Ocalan.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 27, In Germany
Chancellor Schroeder said he would not seek extradition of Abdullah
Ocalan from Italy and called for an int’l. court to try Ocalan on
murder and terrorism charges.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 16, In Italy Abdullah
Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, was freed by an
appeals court in Rome. Turkish officials were outraged and renewed
threats of economic retaliation.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C4)
1999 Feb 16, Turkish commandoes
captured Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya. Kurds seized Greek missions
around Europe and took hostages.
(SFC, 2/17/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/17/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 17, In Berlin Israeli
security guards shot and killed 3 Kurds who forced their way into
the Israeli consulate over the arrest of Abdullah Ocalan.
(SFC, 2/18/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 23, Turkey formally
arrested Abdullah Ocalan on treason charges.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 24, In Iran 3 Kurds
died while fighting police during a protest over the capture of
Ocalan.
(WSJ, 2/25/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 21, In Turkey the
Kurdish New Year began with unrest and police arrested 1,500 people
across the country with the southeast under a virtual state of
siege.
(SFC, 3/22/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 3, In Turkey Abdulah
Ocalan called on the PKK to abandon its armed struggle and pull
forces out of Turkey by Sept. 1.
(SFC, 8/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 5, Kurdish separatist
rebels agreed to accept a cease-fire call by Abdullah Ocalan.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 13, Iran agreed under
pressure to join Turkey for simultaneous military operations against
the PKK.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.A10)
1999 Nov 28, Turkey reported
that some 70 Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq had been killed over
the last 5 days by Turkish forces in 15 operations.
(SFC, 11/29/99, p.A16)
1999 The Kurdistan KDP and PUK
agreed to share power.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A14)
2000 May, The Turkish
government banned 12 Kurdish language journals.
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.D4)
2000 Oct 18, In southern Italy
the bodies of 6 illegal immigrants, believed to be Kurds, were found
dumped on the side of a highway.
(SFC, 10/19/00, p.C10)
2000 Dec 11, In Iraq Saddam
Hussein sent troops into the northern Kurdish zone. Kurds and other
non-Arab Iraqis were being displaced further north.
(WSJ, 12/12/00, p.A1)(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B6)
2001 Jan 7, Iraqi Kurdish
officials reported that at least 500 Turkish troops had pushed 100
miles into northern Iraq in response to a call for help from the
PUK. The PUK was fighting the PKK and had lost 200 soldiers in
recent weeks. Some 10,000 Turkish troops had entered northern Iraq
since Dec 20.
(SFC, 1/8/01, p.A9)
2001 Sep 26, Turkey approved
constitutional reforms that eased restrictions on broadcasting and
publishing in the Kurdish language.
(SFC, 9/27/01, p.A11)
2001 Ansar al-Islam, blamed for
attacks in Iraq and supported by a network of members in Europe, was
founded in late 2001 in Kurdish part of northern Iraq by Mullah
Krekar, who had lived as refugee in Norway since 1991.
(AP, 1/8/05)
2002 Mar 20, In Italy 928
illegal immigrants, mostly ethnic Kurds, arrived on a rusty cargo
ship. A state of emergency was declared to deal with the problem.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 21, In Diyarbakir,
Turkey, thousands of Kurdish youths battled Turkish police after
authorities banned the celebration of Nowruz, the Zoroastrian New
Year.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 3, Turkey's parliament
approved a reform package aimed at boosting its chances of joining
the European Union by abolishing the death penalty and granting
greater rights to the nation's Kurds.
(AP, 8/3/02)
2002 Aug 31, Five Kurdish
migrants were found dead in the back of a cargo truck after they
apparently suffocated during a harrowing ferry crossing from Greece
to Italy.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Sep 8, The leaders of the
two main Kurdish factions, KDP and PUK, that control northern Iraq
signed a reconciliation agreement as the United States tries to
forge a united front against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
(AP, 9/9/02)
2002 Oct 3, Turkey formally
commuted Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's death sentence
to life in prison after parliament abolished capital punishment two
months ago in a bid to join the European Union.
(AP, 10/3/02)
2002 Oct 4, Lawmakers from
rival Iraqi Kurdish factions met for the first time in 8 years, in a
rare show of political unity ahead of a possible U.S. attack on
Iraq.
(AP, 10/4/02)
2002 Oct 27, Kurdish rebels
clashed with Turkish soldiers in the mainly Kurdish southeast,
leaving an insurgent dead and five soldiers wounded.
(AP, 10/27/02)
2002 Nov 30, Turkey lifted
curfews and restrictions on gatherings in two predominantly Kurdish
provinces, ending 15 years of emergency rule in southeastern Turkey
and fulfilling a requirement toward joining the European Union.
(AP, 11/30/02)
2002 Dec 4, Kurdish militiamen
of the PUK battled Islamic militants (Ansar al-Islam) believed to be
linked to al-Qaida in northern Iraq, and as many as 30 militiamen
were killed or wounded.
(AP, 12/4/02)(SFC, 12/6/02, p.A18)
2003 Feb 8, In Iraq gunmen
posing as defectors from an Islamic extremist group killed
Gen. Shawkat Haji Mushir, a political leader of the Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan and two other Kurdish officials.
(AP, 2/9/03)
2003 Mar 4, In northern
Iraq Kurdish soldiers killed 5 Muslim men in a possible case of
mistaken identity.
(AP, 3/4/03)(SFC, 3/5/03, p.A10)
2003 Mar 20, Norwegian police
arrested Mullah Krekar, the leader of a Kurdish guerrilla group
suspected of links to al-Qaida, on kidnapping charges. After
settling in Norway in 1991, Krekar founded the Kurdish Ansar
al-Islam during visits to Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)(AP, 2/14/12)
2003 Mar 20, Turkey’s
parliament approved a motion allowing over-flights for US warplanes.
Turkey announced plans to send thousands of troops into
Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 May 12, The Kurdish
regional parliament in Erbil declared Apr 9, the date of the fall of
Baghdad to US forces, as a national holiday.
(USAT, 5/13/03, p.11A)
2003 Jul 10, In southeastern
Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels raided a village, killing four
villagers and injuring another.
(AP, 7/11/03)
2003 Aug 22, Turkish troops
clashed with Kurdish rebels in Batman province. 7 Kurds and 2
Turkish soldiers were killed.
(SFC, 8/23/03, p.A3)
2003 Nov 11, The Kurdish
guerrilla group that battled the Turkish army for some 15 years
announced that it was dissolving itself and was planning to form a
new group that would likely would pursue Kurdish rights through
negotiations. The Kurdistan Workers Party changed its name to the
Congress for Freedom and Democracy in Kurdistan, or KADEK, last
year.
(AP, 11/11/03)
2004 Jan 2, Norwegian police
arrested Mullah Krekar, Muslim Kurd leader of Ansar al-Islam, on
charges connected to 2 suicide bombings in Iraq 2 years ago. Norway
ordered Krekar deported in 2005 after declaring him a national
security threat, but postponed the move because of worries he could
face execution or torture in Iraq.
(SFC, 1/2/04, p.A3)(AP, 2/14/12)
2004 Jan 6, President Bashar
Assad began the first-ever visit to Turkey by a Syrian head of
state, hoping to further improve ties forge a joint position on
growing Kurdish autonomy.
(AP, 1/6/04)(WSJ, 1/7/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 2, In southeast Turkey
Kurdish guerrillas fired on troops a day after announcing an end to
a 5-year cease fire.
(WSJ, 6/3/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 9, Kurdish parties
warned that they might bolt Iraq's new government if Shiites gain
too much power.
(AP, 6/9/04)
2004 Jun 9, State-run Turkish
TV aired its 1st ever broadcast in the Kurdish dialect of Kurmandji.
Hours later Leyla Zana and 3 colleagues were released after spending
10 years in jail for belonging to the PKK rebel group.
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.50)
2004 Jun 28, Iran’s Deputy
Interior Minister Ali Asghar Ahmadi said two Iranian soldiers and
eight rebels were killed in clashes with Kurds. A pro-Kurdish news
agency said 16 soldiers and four rebels died.
(AP, 7/10/04)
2004 Jul 8, Iranian troops
killed two Turkish Kurdish rebels in clashes close to the Iraqi
border, amid reports of a major offensive by Tehran on Ankara's
behalf.
(AP, 7/10/04)
2004 Oct 2, About 100,000 Kurds
demonstrated outside provincial government offices, demanding that
the turbulent, oil hub of Kirkuk be made part of the autonomous
Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/2/04)
2004 Oct 2, Turkish troops and
Kurdish rebels clashed in southeastern Turkey in fighting that
killed two soldiers and a guerrilla.
(AP, 10/3/04)
2004 Nov 12, Dutch police
raided a suspected Kurdish separatist training camp in a small
village in the southern Netherlands, arresting 29 people. 38 members
of the group were arrested nationwide.
(AFP, 11/12/04)(SFC, 11/13/04, p.A18)
2004 Nov 20, Ugur Kaymaz (12)
and his father Ahmet Kaymaz (30), a Kurdish truck driver from
Kiziltepe, Turkey, were reportedly shot dead by police officers in
front of their house. In 2007 all 4 members of the special forces
implicated in the killings were exonerated.
(www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/communications/turkey.html)(Econ,
6/23/07, p.60)
2004 Dec 1, Unidentified gunmen
in Iraq killed 5 leading members of a Kurdish group that led a
15-year rebellion in southern Turkey.
(WSJ, 12/2/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 3, In Germany 3 Iraqi
citizens of Kurdish origin were arrested for plotting to kill Iraqi
PM Ayad Allawi. In 2008 the 3 men were convicted and sentenced to
prison. The Stuttgart state court convicted the three men of
attempted participation in murder and membership in terrorist
organization Ansar al-Islam, a radical Islamic group linked to
al-Qaida.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2004 Hiner Saleem, filmmaker,
authored “My Father’s Rifle,” a memoir of his life growing as the
son of a Kurdish peshmerga fighter.
(WSJ, 12/22/04, p.D8)
2004 Mike Tucker authored “Hell
Is Over: Voices of the Kurds After Saddam.”
(SSFC, 1/30/05, p.C3)
2005 Jan 26, A suicide car
bomber attacked an office of a major Kurdish party, killing or
injuring at least 20 people.
(AP, 1/26/05)
2005 Feb 2, Kurdish leader
Massoud Barzani outlined a set of demands for Shiite political
parties and said Kurds would back only Shiites willing to maintain
the current Kurd autonomy.
(WSJ, 2/3/05, p.A15)
2005 Mar 10, Iraq's main Shiite
party and a Kurdish bloc reached a deal that sets the stage for a
new government to be formed when the National Assembly convenes next
week.
(AP, 3/10/05)
2005 May 4, An Iraqi carrying
hidden explosives detonated them outside a police recruitment center
where people were applying for jobs, killing at least 60 Iraqis and
wounding some 100. The Iraqi militant group Ansar al-Sunnah claimed
responsibility for the bombing at a police recruitment center that
killed about 50 Iraqis and wounding about 100, saying in a Web
statement the attack was revenge for the Kurds' alliance with US
forces.
(AP, 5/4/05)(SFC, 5/5/05, p.A1)
2005 May 13, Turkish soldiers
killed 9 Kurdish rebels in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast.
Automatic weapons, plastic explosives, grenades, and a
rocket-propelled grenade launcher were seized in the operation. A
Syrian citizen was among those killed.
(AP, 5/14/05)
2005 May 16, In Turkey 2
Kurdish guerillas trying to attack the home of a Turkish governor
were killed after police fired on them as they approached the
building.
(AP, 5/16/05)
2005 cJun 4, In southeastern
Turkey Kurdish rebels killed 4 Turkish soldiers in a clash near
Tunceli.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jul 9, In southeastern
Turkey a land mine believed to have been planted by Kurdish rebels
killed 3 soldiers. Two other land mines injured seven people in
separate explosions.
(AP, 7/10/05)
2005 Jul 11, Kurdish guerrillas
kidnapped a Turkish soldier after stopping dozens of cars at a
makeshift roadblock in the southeast.
(AP, 7/11/05)
2005 Jul 19, A top Turkish
general said the US had given direct orders for the capture of rebel
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leaders in Iraq.
(AP, 7/19/05)
2005 Jul 21, A Kurdish party
official said Kurdish leaders have presented a redrawn map with a
larger Kurdistan to the Iraqi National Assembly for consideration in
the new constitution.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, Turkish forces
killed 5 Kurdish rebels, including a woman, in a gunbattle in the
southeast.
(AP, 7/23/05)
2005 Aug 1, The directors of
Turkey's eight privately owned Kurdish language schools announced
they were closing them due to bureaucratic hurdles and Kurdish
demands for the language to be part of the regular school
curriculum.
(AP, 8/1/05)
2005 Aug 5, In southeastern
Turkey Kurdish rebels killed 5 Turkish soldiers in a rocket attack.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 13, In Iran at least
17 people were reported killed and many more wounded during
anti-government protests in the western province of Kurdistan.
(AP, 8/13/05)
2005 Aug 19, A Kurdish rebel
group fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast announced a
one-month cease-fire and said it planned to pursue indirect
negotiations with the government.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2005 Sep 4, In Turkey a group
of nationalist Turks attacked dozens of buses carrying pro-Kurdish
demonstrators with stones, following violent clashes between Kurdish
demonstrators and police in Istanbul.
(AP, 9/4/05)
2005 Nov 9, In Semdinli,
Turkey, 2 government intelligence officers and a PKK informant were
caught trying to blow up a bookshop owned by a PKK sympathizer. The
affair was said to have been organized by the “deep state,” a
shadowy coalition of rogue officers and bureaucrats whose powers
were being sapped by EU-inspired laws.
(Econ, 4/15/06, p.54)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.52)
2005 At least 68 people,
including 9 children, were killed this year in landmine blasts in
Turkey’s Kurdish areas bordering Iran and Iraq.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.52)
2006 Jan 24, Banaz Mahmod (20)
was raped, beaten, strangled, stuffed in a suitcase and buried in a
back garden in Birmingham, England, on her father's orders for
becoming involved with a man of whom he did not approve. Mahmod's
father was given a life sentence in 2007 for ordering the killing.
In 2010 two of her Kurdish cousins were jailed for life by a London
court for murdering Mahmod because her family disapproved of her
boyfriend.
(www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5263475.ece)(AP,
11/10/10)
2006 Feb 9, In Turkey a bomb
attack wounded at least 17 people at an Internet cafe in Istanbul. A
hardline Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Turkey a bomb
exploded at an Istanbul supermarket during the afternoon rush,
injuring 15 people. A Kurdish news agency reported that a Kurdish
militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 15, Kurdish protesters
armed with firebombs and stones battled with Turkish police to mark
the seventh anniversary of guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's
capture.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb, Iranian security
forces, according to a Kurdish group, killed 10 demonstrators.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.42)
2006 Mar 4, Iraq's Kurdish
president said that he joined Sunni Arab and secular politicians in
trying to block the Shiite Muslim prime minister from a second term
because Ibrahim al-Jaafari has become a divisive figure.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 11, Turkish and
Kurdish intellectuals gathered under tight security for a major
2-day conference in Istanbul to discuss a peaceful resolution to the
22-year-old Kurdish conflict.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 21, More than 100,000
Turkish Kurds celebrated the ancient spring festival of Newroz with
dancing, singing and calls for political reform and the release of
jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 24-2006 Mar 25, In
southeastern Turkey government troops killed 14 Kurdish guerrillas
near the hamlet of Senyayla.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 28, Thousands of
Kurdish protesters rampaged after funerals for Kurdish guerrillas
killed by Turkish troops, hurling firebombs at armored police
vehicles and smashing windows at a police station. Forty people were
injured.
(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Mar 29, In southeastern
Turkey riot police fired water cannons and used pepper spray to
disperse stone-throwing Kurdish rioters in a second day of violence
that an official said left at least three people dead and 250
injured.
(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Mar 30, In southeast
Turkey violent protests by thousands of Kurdish demonstrators left
at least 20 hurt as protesters hurled firebombs and police opened
fire to disperse the crowds.
(AP, 3/3006)
2006 Mar 31, In Turkey a bomb
hidden in a garbage can exploded near an Istanbul bus stop, killing
a street vendor and injuring 13 people.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Apr 1, Fresh clashes
between Kurdish protesters and police in southeast Turkey killed one
protester and injured 10.
(Reuters, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 2, In southeastern
Turkey one protester died after police opened fire to disperse
Kurdish demonstrators, raising the death toll in six days of street
violence to nine. A group of men stopped a passenger bus and tossed
gasoline bombs at it, sending the vehicle careening into pedestrians
and killing 3 in Istanbul as pro-Kurdish riots continued to spread.
The countrywide death toll from nearly a week of unrest climbed to
15.
(AP, 4/2/06)(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 8, Local security
sources said Turkish security forces had killed seven Kurdish rebels
in the past 24 hours in the southeast of the country.
(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 27, Turkey said it has
deployed more than 30,000 additional troops in its predominantly
Kurdish southeast and along its rugged border with Iraq and Iran to
fight Kurdish guerrillas and stop them from coming across the
frontier.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Jul 16, Turkish PM Recep
Tayyip Erdogan signaled that his government was planning a tough
response to mounting violence by Kurdish rebels after 13 members of
the security forces were killed in the southeast over the past week.
(AFP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 21, Turkey killed 4
Kurdish rebels after a soldier died in an attack.
(WSJ, 7/22/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 19, A suspected
Kurdish rebel attack caused an explosion and huge fire on a natural
gas pipeline in eastern Turkey.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 23, A leader of
Kurdish rebels battling Turkey's government said in a rare interview
that his guerrillas will not give in to US pressure to disarm
without a "political project" that fulfills their calls for
autonomy. PKK party officials met with a group of journalists in the
rugged, isolated Qandil Mountain in Iraq's northeast corner where
the group is based.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 29, An extremist
Kurdish militant group warned that "the fear of death will reign
everywhere in Turkey" and it urged tourists to avoid travel to the
country.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Sep 1, Kurdish leader
Massoud Barzani ordered the Iraqi national flag to be replaced with
the Kurdish one in his northern autonomous region. Gunmen fatally
shot one policeman in each of two towns outside of Baghdad in
separate incidents. Police said they found the body of a Saddam
Hussein-era intelligence officer who had been kidnapped and shot. A
US soldier died from wounds sustained during action in Anbar
province.
(AP, 9/1/06)(AP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 19, The Iraqi
government said it will shut down all offices belonging to the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) around the country. A rocket attack on
a Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad killed 10 people and
wounded 19. In northern Iraq at least 17 people were killed and 11
wounded in twin bombings in the town of Al-Shurqat.
(AP, 9/19/06)(AFP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 23, In eastern Turkey
suspected Kurdish guerrillas set off an explosive-laden minibus
across from a police guest house, injuring 17 people.
(AP, 9/23/06)
2006 Sep 26, In Turkey 56
Kurdish mayors stood trial, accused in a freedom-of-speech case on
charges of helping terrorists by arguing to keep a Kurdish TV
station on the air.
(AP, 9/26/06)
2006 Sep 28, Jailed Kurdish
rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has appealed to his Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) to call a ceasefire in its separatist campaign against
the Turkish government.
(AFP, 9/28/06)
2006 Sep 30, A Kurdish
guerrilla group declared a new unilateral cease-fire in its war for
autonomy in Turkey's southeast, heeding a call from its imprisoned
rebel leader.
(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Sep, The English-language
Univ. of Kurdistan opened in Kurdish controlled Iraq with some 300
undergraduates and 50 graduate students.
(SFC, 8/3/07, p.A10)
2006 Dec 7, In Armenia 3
teenagers and their grandmother set themselves on fire in Yerevan to
protest what they said was authorities' inaction on investigating a
relative's death, a family member said. Two of them were injured.
They argued that the case was not being investigated because of
discrimination against the Yazidi, a Kurdish ethnic group. About
50,000 Yazidi live in Armenia.
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 The Kurdish populace was
spread across Turkey (14m), Iran (4m), Iraq (5m), Syria (2m),
Armenia and Azerbaijan. They claimed to be the world’s largest
ethnic populations without a state of their own. Almost all Kurds
are Sunni Muslims.
(SFC, 9/2/96, p.A12)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.12)
2007 Apr 12, Turkey's army
chief said the military had launched several "large scale"
offensives against rebels in the predominantly Kurdish southeast,
and he asked the government for approval to launch an incursion into
neighboring northern Iraq.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 25, A UN report was
released that said that violence in Baghdad remains at high levels.
The UN Assistance Mission in Iraq singled out Kurdistan in its 10th
human rights report on Iraq, expressing concern over infringements
on freedom of expression by the regional government. A suicide
bomber wearing a hidden belt of explosives attacked a police station
in Iraq's volatile province of Diyala, killing at least four
policeman. Roadside bombs, mortar rounds and drive-by shootings also
killed 10 Iraqis and wounded 23 in the Baghdad area and the cities
of Kirkuk, Mosul and Fallujah.
(AP, 4/25/07)(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 May 25, Kurdish guerrillas
bombed and derailed a Syria-bound train from Iran near the town of
Genc in Turkey’s southeastern Bingol province. Turkish authorities
later seized weapons hidden among construction materials found on
the train following the attack.
(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 May 31, Turkish lawmakers
approved again a constitutional amendment that would see the
president elected by popular vote, a change vetoed last week by the
outgoing head of state. Turkey's top general said the military was
ready to stage a cross-border offensive to fight Kurdish guerrillas
in Iraq and that he already had sought government approval to mount
military action.
(AFP, 5/31/07)(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 Jun 1, In southeast Turkey
soldiers killed two Kurdish militants overnight in Tunceli, where
troops massed along the border threatened an incursion into Iraq.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 3, Turkish troops
shelled a border area in northern Iraq in an attack on Kurdish
rebels based there.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 4, Seven Turkish
paramilitary police were killed when Kurdish militants attacked
their headquarters in eastern Tunceli province.
(AP, 6/4/07)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.58)
2007 Jun 6, A premature report
said several thousand Turkish troops had crossed into northern Iraq
to chase Kurdish guerrillas who operate from bases there. Turkey
declared several areas near the border with Iraq to be "temporary
security zones" in a sign of increasing activity by the military in
its campaign against Kurdish rebels. Turkey's foreign minister
denied there was a cross-border operation.
(AP, 6/6/07)(AP, 6/7/07)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.58)
2007 Jun 11, In London,
England, Mahmod Mahmod (52), a Kurdish father who ordered his
daughter brutally slain for falling in love with the wrong man in a
so-called "honor killing," was found guilty of murder. Banaz Mahmod
(20) was strangled with a boot lace, stuffed into a suitcase and
buried in a back garden.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2007 Jun 12, Kurdish separatist
rebels declared a "unilateral cease-fire" in attacks against Turkey
and said they were ready for peace negotiations, but the group
maintained the right to defend itself.
(AP, 6/12/07)
2007 Jun 23, In Turkey a
separatist Kurdish rebel and a civilian were killed in a botched
suicide attack in the eastern province of Tunceli. Paramilitary
troops opened fire on the truck as it was approaching a military
outpost at which point the vehicle exploded. Fighting elsewhere left
five rebels and a government militia member dead.
(AFP, 6/24/07)
2007 Jun 27, Gen. Yasar
Buyukanit, Turkey's military chief, asked his government to set
political guidelines for an incursion into northern Iraq to fight
Kurdish guerrillas.
(AP, 6/27/07)
2007 Jul 3, A human rights
group said Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq routinely
torture detainees with methods including electric shock and hold
them in overcrowded facilities without formal charges or access to
legal aid.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 6, Turkey's foreign
minister said his government and military have agreed on plans for a
possible cross-border operation against Kurdish rebels based in
northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 11, Kurdish leaders
spoke out against a key oil law, raising further doubts over efforts
to pass one of the political benchmarks sought by the United States.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Turkey's
ambassador to Washington said that US weapons have been turning up
in the hands of Kurdish guerrillas staging attacks in Turkey.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 12, Iranian artillery
shelled near Iraqi Kurd villages as Iranian troops clashed with
Kurdish guerrillas making an incursion across the border.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Aug 7, Kurdish guerrillas
killed a Turkish lieutenant in the southeast, as the Iraqi prime
minister arrived for a visit. Turkey and Iraq agreed to try to root
out a Kurdish rebel group from northern Iraq, but Iraq's prime
minister said his parliament would have the final say on efforts to
halt the guerrillas' cross-border attacks into Turkey. Iraq's
semi-autonomous Kurdish government approved a regional oil law,
paving the way for foreign investment in their northern oil and gas
fields even as similar US-backed legislation for the entire country
remained stalled. Two US Marines died west of Baghdad, one in
fighting and the other in a non-combat incident that was under
investigation.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 10, A car bomb struck
a market in a Kurdish area in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing
at least eight people and wounding dozens. Scattered violence struck
Iraqis nationwide, with at least 15 people killed or found dead.
South of Baghdad, the US military said a helicopter was forced down,
leaving two soldiers injured.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 12, In southeast
Turkey 12 were injured, three of them seriously, when Kurdish
guerrillas detonated a roadside bomb.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 26, A US helicopter
attacked two Kurdish police outposts, killing four policemen and
wounding eight. A spokesman for the Kurdish Peshmerga militia
believed the attack was mistaken friendly fire. Waves of Shiite
pilgrims descended on Karbala for the Shabaniyah festival marking
the birth of the 9th century Hidden Imam. A woman making the 50-mile
trek from Baghdad was shot to death by men in a passing car in the
southwest of the capital.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 30, Turkish
legislators said that American weapons have been turning up in the
hands of Kurdish guerrillas staging attacks in Turkey.
(SFC, 8/31/07, p.A17)
2007 Sep 10, It was reported
that the regional government of Kurdistan had signed a deal with
Dallas-based Hunt Oil Co. to explore for oil in their region.
(WSJ, 9/10/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 12, Turkish troops
killed 4 Kurdish guerrillas in a the southeastern province of Siirt.
(AP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 26, Officials said
Turkey and Iraq have agreed to sign a counterterrorism deal cracking
down on separatist Kurdish rebels holed up in bases in northern
Iraq.
(AP, 9/26/07)
2007 Sep 30, In southeastern
Turkey Kurdish rebels ambushed a minibus carrying pro-government
village guards and civilians and killed 12 people.
(AP, 9/29/07)
2007 Oct 7, Kurdish rebels
killed 13 Turkish soldiers in a clash in the country's southeast,
and troops responded by shelling an area near Iraq to try to stop
the rebels from escaping across the border.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 9, Turkish PM Tayyip
Erdogan gave the green light for a possible military incursion into
northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels hiding there after several
deadly attacks on Turkish security forces.
(Reuters, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 10, It was reported
that Turkey had begun shelling suspected Kurdish rebel camps across
the border in northern Iraq. The government appeared unlikely to
move toward sending ground troops until next week.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 17, Turkey’s
Parliament gave the government a one-year window in which to launch
cross-border offensives against Turkish Kurd rebels who've been
conducting raids into Turkey. The vote removed the last legal
obstacle to an offensive.
(AP, 10/18/07)(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 18,
Thousands of Kurds and supporters took to the streets in
northern Iraq to protest the Turkish parliament's decision to
authorize the government to send troops across the border to root
out Kurdish rebels who have been conducting raids into Turkey.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 21, Kurdish rebels
ambushed a Turkish military convoy less than three miles from the
Iraqi border, killing 12 soldiers with 8 missing. The rebels said
they are holding them hostage. Turkey shelled the border region in
response to the attack, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself
a Kurd, ordered the rebels to lay down their arms or leave Iraq.
(AP, 10/21/07)(WSJ, 10/22/07, p.A1)(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 23,
Turkey's foreign minister rejected any cease-fire by Kurdish
rebels as he met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad to press them to
crack down on the guerrillas. Turkish forces massed on the border
and tensions rose over a threatened military incursion.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 24, Turkish warplanes
and helicopter gunships reportedly attacked positions of Kurdish
rebels just inside Turkey along the border with Iraq, as Turkey's
military stepped up its anti-rebel operations. Masoud Barzani,
president of Iraq’s Kurdish region, called on the PKK to end its
violence in Turkey.
(AP, 10/24/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.61)
2007 Oct 26, A high-level Iraqi
delegation held talks with Turkish officials to try to defuse
tensions over Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq. Turkish
helicopters and fighter jets pounded Kurdish rebel positions as
diplomatic efforts began in Ankara.
(AP, 10/26/07)(Reuters, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 28, Turkish troops
killed some 20 Kurdish guerrillas in fighting in eastern Tunceli
province. Turkey's PM Erdogan called for unity between Turks and
Kurds against the rebels.
(Reuters, 10/28/07)(AP, 10/29/07)(WSJ, 10/29/07,
p.A1)
2007 Oct 29, Turkey's state-run
news said soldiers battled separatist Kurdish rebels across
southeast Turkey, trapping about 100 in caves near the Iraqi border
after blocking escape routes across the frontier. Helicopter
gunships bombed Kurdish rebel positions in southeast Turkey and the
government flexed its military muscle with big national day parades
and flypasts in major cities.
(AP, 10/29/07)(Reuters, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 30, Turkish Cobra
attack helicopters blasted suspected Kurdish rebel targets near the
southeastern border with Iraq in a second day of fighting in the
area. PM Erdogan said an escalation of military action was
unavoidable.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 31, The Turkish army
said it killed 15 Kurdish separatists near the Iraqi border, as
ministers discussed possible economic sanctions against Iraq's
autonomous Kurdish government.
(AFP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31,
The US acknowledged that it had undertaken military moves
against Kurdish rebels in Iraq, including spy planes and providing
Turkey with more intelligence.
(WSJ, 11/1/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 2, Iraqi police found
only six bodies dumped in three Iraqi cities, and no reports of
shootings or bombings. The prime minister of Iraq's northern Kurdish
region condemned attacks by Kurdish rebel fighters inside Turkey and
said he hopes a weekend summit in Istanbul will reduce the threat of
Turkish military strikes inside Iraq.
(AP, 11/2/07)(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 3, Some 5,000 Turkish
Kurds protested against a military incursion into Iraq, saying such
a move would enflame ethnic tensions in the region and plunge the
local economy into ruin. Iraq said it was ready to hunt down and
arrest Kurdish guerrilla leaders responsible for cross-border raids
into Turkey in an effort to avert a major incursion by the Turkish
military.
(AFP, 11/3/07)(Reuters, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 4, Two carloads of
gunman ambushed a top aide to Iraq's Finance Ministry in Baghdad,
killing him and his driver. The two were among 15 people killed or
found dead in Iraq. Kurdish rebels released eight Turkish soldiers
in northern Iraq two weeks after they were captured in a deadly
ambush that intensified pressure on the Turkish government to attack
the guerrillas in Iraq.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 6, Kurdish rebels
released another Iranian soldier captured two months ago in northern
Iraq.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 13, Turkish helicopter
gunships attacked abandoned villages inside Iraq, the first such
airstrike since border tensions have escalated in recent months.
Kurdish guerrillas killed four Turkish soldiers in a clash in
southeastern Turkey.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 16, Turkish
authorities took steps to ban the country's leading pro-Kurdish
political party and expel several of its lawmakers from parliament
on charges of separatism.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Dec 1, The Turkish
military said it fired on 50 to 60 Kurdish rebels inside Iraqi
territory, inflicting "significant losses."
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 5, Turkish soldiers
killed eight Kurdish rebels, increasing the rebel death toll to 14
in a two-day clash near the border with Iraq.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 16, Turkish warplanes
hit Kurdish rebel targets, marking an escalation of force against
the outlawed separatist group. An Iraqi official said the planes
attacked several villages, killing one woman. Turkey’s military
later said up to 175 rebels were killed on this day. A Kurdish
leader said the figure was exaggerated.
(AP, 12/16/07)(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 18, The Turkish army
sent soldiers about 1.5 miles into northern Iraq in an overnight
operation. A Turkish official said the troops seeking Kurdish rebels
were still in Iraq by midmorning.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 22, Turkish warplanes
bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in the third confirmed
cross-border offensive by Turkish forces in less than a week.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 23, Turkish fighter
jets bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 26, Turkish warplanes
hit eight suspected Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq, the
third cross-border air assault in 10 days. Troops killed 6 rebels
near the Iraqi border.
(AP, 12/26/07)(WSJ, 12/27/07, p.A1)
2007 Ian Klaus authored “Elvis
Is Titanic: Classroom Tales from the Other Iraq,” an account of his
time as a teacher in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Klaus, a
former boyfriend of Chelsea Clinton, taught there in 2005.
(WSJ, 9/1/07, p.P9)
2007 Aliza Marcus authored
“Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence.”
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.100)
2007 In western Iran Kurdish
Law student Habibollah Latifi was arrested accused of carrying
activities on behalf of "anti- revolutionary" groups. He was
sentenced to death in 2008.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2007 The Kurdish population in
Turkey numbered about 14 million.
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.60)
2008 Jan 3, In Turkey a car
bomb exploded in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern city of
Diyarbakir, killing 6 people, including 5 students. 67 people were
wounded, including military personnel.
(AP, 1/3/08)(Reuters, 1/4/08)(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 7, In Turkey an
accused Kurdish rebel suspected of detonating a deadly car bomb last
week in Diyarbakir was captured. Six other suspects also were
detained.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 8, Pres. Bush met with
Turkey’s Pres. Abdullah Gul to discuss US policy on Turkey's fight
against Kurdish rebels. Bush prepared to leave later in the day on
his first major trip to the Mideast to try to build momentum for
peace.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 15, Turkish warplanes
bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in the latest in a
series of cross-border air strikes.
(AFP, 1/15/08)
2008 Feb 4, Turkey’s warplanes
bombed some 70 Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 15, In southeast
Turkey hundreds of Kurdish protesters battled police, leaving a
young demonstrator dead and dozens injured on the ninth anniversary
of guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's capture.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 21, Turkish troops
launched a ground incursion across the border into Iraq in pursuit
of separatist Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 25, Turkey's military
said it had killed 41 more separatist Kurdish rebels in clashes in
northern Iraq, raising the reported guerrilla death toll in a
cross-border operation to 153.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 26, The Iraqi
government demanded for the first time that Turkey immediately
withdraw from northern Iraq, warning it feared the ongoing incursion
could lead to clashes with the official forces of the semiautonomous
Kurdish region.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 27, Turkey said the
death toll for rebels reached 230 during the operation in northern
Iraq that began last week. The death toll for soldiers stood at 24.
Troops killed 77 Kurdish rebels in night-long clashes with 5 Turkish
soldiers killed.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 29, Turkey's military
said it has ended a ground offensive against Kurdish rebels in Iraq,
but said that foreign influence did not play a role in its decision.
(AP, 2/29/08)
2008 Mar 6, A Kurdish
demonstrator wounded a day earlier in clashes with police in eastern
Turkey died of his injuries.
(AP, 3/7/08)
2008 Mar 7, Suspected Kurdish
rebels killed a civilian and took another hostage in a southern
Turkish province near the border with Syria.
(AP, 3/7/08)
2008 Mar 12, Turkish troops
killed 11 Kurdish rebels during clashes near the border with Iraq.
(WSJ, 3/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 20, Turkish warplanes
bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 21, In Turkey unrest
erupted when celebrations marking Newroz day, or the Kurdish new
year, degenerated into demonstrations in favor of the armed
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara lists as a
terrorist group.
(AFP, 3/22/08)
2008 Mar 22, In Turkey dozens
of people were injured and scores detained as police used truncheons
and tear gas to break up violent Kurdish protests in several eastern
cities.
(AP, 3/22/08)
2008 Mar 23, Iranian artillery
shelled three border towns in northern Iraq where Iranian Kurdish
rebels are believed to be operating.
(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 23, In southeast
Turkey Kurdish protesters clashed with police for a 4th day. Two
people have been killed In the clashes and dozens injured.
(WSJ, 3/24/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 27, Turkey's armed
forces killed 15 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) in northern Iraq using long-range land weapons.
(Reuters, 3/29/08)
2008 Mar 28, Turkish warplanes
hit Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/29/08)
2008 Mar 31, Turkey's top court
decided to put the Islamist-rooted ruling party on trial for alleged
anti-secular activity, in a case that could threaten national
stability and Ankara's bid to join the EU. Clashes between Turkish
troops and Kurdish rebels left nine rebels and three soldiers dead
in Turkey's southeast.
(AFP, 3/31/08)(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 16, Turkish warplanes
hit a group of Kurdish rebels reportedly trying to infiltrate Turkey
from the Avasin-Basyan region of northern Iraq. A clash between
Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels near Turkey's southeastern border
with Iraq left a Turkish soldier dead.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 25, Turkish warplanes
and artillery units struck Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq who were
preparing to cross the border to carry out attacks. The strikes
continued the next day.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 May 2, A rebel spokesman
said Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel bases deep inside Iraq
for three hours overnight. The Turkish military said the raid in
northern Iraq killed more than 150 Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 9, In southeast Turkey
a land mine explosion killed 3 people and injured 3 others. Air
strikes launched in retaliation for a rebel raid killed 19 Kurdish
fighters. Six soldiers died in the violence. The PKK denied the
military's claims of 19 rebel deaths saying "not a single guerrilla
was killed."
(AP, 5/9/08)(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 10, Turkish warplanes
and artillery units destroyed key Kurdish rebel positions in
northern Iraq, including a communications center, in a second day of
raids on rebel positions.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 12, Iraqi Kurdish
officials said Turkish jets overnight struck suspected Kurdish rebel
targets close to the border in northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 17, In eastern Turkey
a clash between soldiers and Kurdish rebels left 6 rebels dead in
Van province.
(AP, 5/17/08)
2008 May 22, Two Turkish
soldiers were killed in an overnight clash with Kurdish rebels in
southeastern Turkey. Troops killed two Kurdish rebels near the
southeastern city of Sirnak,
(AP, 5/22/08)(AP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 23, In Turkey one
rebel and one village guard were killed in a clash near the border
with Iran.
(AP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 28, Turkey's state-run
media said soldiers killed two Kurdish rebels during a clash near
the border with Iran.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 29, Turkish warplanes
attacked several Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq. No
casualties were immediately reported. Air raids destroyed 16 Kurdish
rebel facilities.
(AP, 5/29/08)(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 Jun 5, A Turkish TV
station quoted a senior military commander as saying that Turkey and
Iran have carried out coordinated strikes against Kurdish rebels in
northern Iraq.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jul 8, In eastern Turkey
Kurdish guerrillas kidnapped three German tourists on a climbing
expedition. The Germans were released on July 20.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 9, In Istanbul,
Turkey, men armed with pistols and shotguns attacked a police guard
post outside the US consulate, sparking a gunbattle that left 3
attackers and 3 officers dead.
(AP, 7/9/08)(Reuters, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 11, A Turkish news
agency reported that army troops clashed with Kurdish rebels in the
southeast and that 10 of the rebels were killed.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 16, Turkey’s military
said 11 Kurdish rebels were killed in an ongoing operation in
Hakkari province, near the border with Iraq.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 18, In southeastern
Turkey 10 members of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
were killed in clashes with Turkish military forces.
(Reuters, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 23, Iraq's Kurdish
government has denounced a draft law paving the way for US-backed
provincial elections and urged the presidential council to reject
it. The 18-year-old son of the chief editor of a US-sponsored
newspaper was shot to death as an American patrol passed nearby in
the northern city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 7/23/08)(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 23, Turkish warplanes
bombed 13 Kurdish rebel targets in the Zab region of northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 27, In Istanbul,
Turkey, bomb blasts killed 17 people in a crowded square in the
residential neighborhood of Gungoren. 5 of the dead were children.
Turkish warplanes bombed 12 Kurdish rebel targets on Mount Qandil in
northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/28/08)(AP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 29, Turkish warplanes
attacked Kurdish rebels in Iraq's north, killing a group of
guerrillas gathered at a mountain cave.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Aug 5, In Turkey an oil
pipeline that has allowed the West to tap the rich fields of
Azerbaijan, bypassing Iran and Russia, was set on fire. A Kurdish
rebel organization later admitted sabotaging the pipeline.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 13, In northwest Iran
three Kurdish separatists and one Iranian soldier were killed in a
shootout.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Sep 25, Turkish warplanes
bombarded Kurdish rebel territory in northern Iraq, damaging a
school and wounding three people.
(AP, 9/26/08)
2008 Oct 3, Fighting between
Kurdish rebels and Turkey's army and air force in southeastern
Turkey and northern Iraq killed 15 soldiers and at least 23
insurgents, in the deadliest battle between the longtime enemies
this year.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 6, Turkish warplanes
bombed a Kurdish rebel hideout in northern Iraq, the third air
strike in retaliation for an attack that killed 15 soldiers three
days ago.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 7, Turkish warplanes
bombed suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq and
southeast Turkey, in new air strikes responding to an attack that
killed 17 soldiers at a military outpost four days ago.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 8, In Turkey rebels
ambushed a police bus, killing four policemen and the driver in the
Kurdish-dominated city of Diyarbakir, further escalating tensions.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 10, In Iraq Diyar
Abbas Ahmed (28), a Kurdish journalist, was gunned down in Kirkuk. A
New York-based journalists' group said it was the 136th killing of a
reporter since the US-led invasion of Iraq five years ago.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, Turkish warplanes
and artillery bombed dozens of Kurdish rebel targets overnight in
northern Iraq following an escalation in rebel attacks. Engin Ceber
(29), a left-wing activist, was tortured and beaten to death in an
Istanbul prison.
(AP, 10/11/08)(Econ, 10/18/08,
p.61)(http://erkansaka.net/blog2/2008/10/engin_ceber.html)
2008 Oct 15, The Turkish
military clashed with Kurdish rebels near the Iraqi border in
battles in which four soldiers and five rebels were killed. A
Turkish helicopter crashed during the clash. A soldier was killed
and 15 security personnel were slightly injured in the crash.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 17, Turkish warplanes
carried out successful airstrikes inside Iraq on the main bases used
by Kurdish rebels. The air strikes on Qandil Mountain killed 25
Kurdish rebels and wounded many more. Earlier in the day, the
military said it intercepted Kurdish rebel radio chatter indicating
that up to 35 guerrillas had been killed in clashes with troops
earlier this week in southeastern Sirnak province.
(AP, 10/17/08)(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 19, Turkish warplanes
again bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts across the border in northern
Iraq. The bombings targeted four towns near the Turkish border.
(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 20, A Kurdish
demonstrator died after a clash with police in eastern Turkey.
Kurdish protesters staged demonstrations in many parts of Turkey
over the weekend following allegations that Kurdish rebel leader
Abdullah Ocalan was mistreated in prison.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 21, Turkish soldiers
killed two Kurdish guerrillas during a clash near the village of
Dallitepe in the country's southeast.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 28, Turkey's warplanes
and artillery struck Kurdish rebel targets inside northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Nov 19, Iran's official
news agency said Iranian border guards have killed several Kurdish
separatists in a shootout in the western part of the country. The
gunmen were said to be part of the Kurdish separatist group, known
as the PEJAK, the Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK).
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Dec 7, A Kurdish rebel
group declared a nine-day holiday cease-fire in their fight against
Turkey, calling it a "first step toward peace."
(AP, 12/7/08)
2009 Jan 19, In Turkey
Abdulkarim Kirca committed suicide. He was found shot in the head in
his apartment in Ankara, following allegations in the Turkish press
that he had been involved in extra-judicial killings of Kurds.
(Econ, 1/31/09,
p.58)(www.journalistinturkey.com/date/2009/01/)
2009 Jan 23, Iraqi Foreign
Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said Turkey, Iraq and the United States
have agreed to set up a joint command center in northern Iraq to
gather intelligence to fight Kurdish PKK rebels in the region.
(Reuters, 1/23/09)
2009 Feb 15, In Turkey police
clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators across the country's
predominantly Kurdish southeast during protests marking the 10th
anniversary of a separatist rebel leader's capture.
(AP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 24, A Kurdish
politician spoke to lawmakers in Turkey's parliament in the Kurdish
language, openly defying the law, to celebrate UNESCO world
languages week. State-run television immediately cut off the live
broadcast.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Mar 12, Turkish warplanes
carried out new bombing raids against Kurdish rebel positions in
northern Iraq. The strike targeted hideouts of the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) in the Zap-Avashin region of the Kurdish-held
autonomous north of Iraq.
(AFP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 23, Turkey's president
began the first visit to Iraq by a Turkish head of state in more
than 30 years, seeking to press Iraqi leaders to stop Kurdish rebels
from launching cross-border attacks on Turkey. In northern Iraq a
suicide bombing against a Kurdish funeral in Jalula killed 27
people. 8 people were killed in a bombing at a bus stop west of
Baghdad. A suicide blast in Tel Afar killed police officer and
wounded 8 people.
(AP, 3/23/09)(AP, 3/24/09)(SFC, 3/24/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 24, Kurdish rebels
rejected calls by Iraq's president to stop fighting against Turkey
and leave Iraqi territory as the visiting Turkish president stepped
up pressure on the Baghdad government to act against the group.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Apr 27, In Turkey a
five-hour police shootout with a leftist militant in Istanbul left
three people dead, including the militant described as a top member
of a group tied to the Kurdish separatist PKK. The militant was
identified as Orhan Yilmazkaya, one of three top members of the
Revolutionary Headquarters.
(AP, 4/27/09)
2009 Apr 29, In southeastern
Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels detonated a roadside bomb that
killed nine soldiers in a US-made armored personnel carrier.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 30, Turkey's military
said its warplanes struck Kurdish rebel targets overnight in
northern Iraq.
(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 May 4, Iraq’s Foreign
Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad and handed him a
letter of protest, demanding that Iran halt shelling against Kurdish
rebels in the country's north and warned the "extremely dangerous
violations" of Iraqi territory could harm relations between the two
countries.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 28, Turkish warplanes
attacked Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, hours after a land mine
blast on the Turkish side of the border killed six soldiers.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 Jun 13, A Turkish soldier
and a Kurdish rebel were killed in fighting in the southeast of
Turkey near the border with Iraq.
(AFP, 6/14/09)
2009 Jul 25, Iraqis voted in
elections in the self-ruled Kurdish north. Regional Kurdish
President Massoud Barzani, who has been a consistent critic of the
central government, won re-election with almost 70% of the vote,
while the leading candidate from the opposition party, Kamal
Mirawdeli, received 25%. A coalition of the two ruling parties,
Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, received a little over 57%
of the vote for the 111-seat parliament, while the opposition
Gorran, or Change, party took about 23%.
(AP, 7/25/09)(AP, 7/29/09)
2009 Jul 29, Turkey's
government said it is prepared to grant more rights to the nation's
Kurds in an effort to end the 25-year insurgency by Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 7/29/09)
2009 Aug 25, Turkey's military
indicated that it would back government efforts to grant more rights
to Kurds and improve the economy of their region. The military,
however, drew the line at moves that would involve negotiating with
Kurdish rebels, harm Turkey's unity or make Kurdish an official
language.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Sep 5, In Iraq hundreds of
Sunni Arabs opposed to the presence of Kurdish troops in disputed
areas of northern Iraq demonstrated against a plan to deploy a mixed
force of American, Kurdish and Iraqi soldiers in the area.
(AP, 9/5/09)
2009 Oct 15, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki warned Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stop conducting
military operations across Iraq's northern border targeting Kurdish
rebels and stressed that Iraq's sovereignty can not be violated. The
two met in Baghdad and were to sign agreements boosting economic
ties between their countries. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army
patrol in Baghdad, killing one Iraqi soldier.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 19, In Turkey tens of
thousands of Kurds flocked to the Iraqi border to greet 34 PKK
fighters and their sympathizers, who gave themselves up following a
call by PM Erdogan to return home.
(Econ, 10/24/09, p.63)
2009 Oct 20, Turkish
prosecutors sought charges against 5 Kurdish rebels who surrendered
in a peace gesture, raising questions about whether thousands of
other guerrillas can be persuaded to end their decades-long fight.
The 5 were later released on the orders of a judge.
(AP, 10/20/09)(Econ, 10/24/09, p.63)
2009 Oct 28, Kurdish President
Massoud Barzani said the Kurds would not accept a proposed "special
status," referring to distinct voting rules specifically for Kirkuk
in Iraq's January election, which Kurds say would favor other
ethnicities.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Nov 11, Iran executed
Ehsan Fattahian (28), a Kurdish activist, at a prison in Sanandaj.
He was a member of the Party of Free Life in Kurdistan, a militant
group outlawed by Iran.
(SFC, 11/12/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 13, Turkey's
government announced new measures aimed at reconciling with minority
Kurds and ending a 25-year-old insurgency, but there was no mention
of the sweeping amnesty sought by Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 11/13/09)
2009 Dec 1, Turkey's government
approved a plan to open the country's first Kurdish-language
department at a university as part of its efforts to reconcile with
the Kurdish minority. Small scale violence continued for the third
day in a row as stone-throwing Kurdish militants clashed with police
across the nation in the wake of last week's anniversary of the 1978
founding of the PKK rebel group.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 7, In Turkey a Kurdish
rebel group, acting on its own initiative, carried out an assault in
the central city of Tokat killing 7 Turkish soldiers. 3 soldiers
were also wounded in the rebel ambush on a military vehicle.
(AP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 12, In Turkey angry
Kurds battled Turkish police with rocks and firebombs to protest a
decision by the country's top court to shut down a pro-Kurdish
political party on charges of ties to militants.
(AP, 12/12/09)
2009 Dec 13, Turkish
nationalists and Kurdish activists clashed in Istanbul, leaving at
least one person injured from a gunshot during street battles.
(AFP, 12/13/09)
2009 Dec 15, In Turkey two
Kurds were killed in Bulanik after a shop-keeper fired on
protesters.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.91)
2009 Dec 19, An Iraqi official
said a mass grave discovered in northeast Iraq contains dozens of
bodies, mostly of women and children, believed killed during a
crackdown against Kurds by former dictator Saddam Hussein. The grave
was originally found nearly two years ago west of Kirkuk, though its
discovery was only made public this week after forensic pathologists
began examining it.
(AP, 12/19/09)
2009 Dec 24, Turkish police
detained 31 people, including eight Kurdish mayors, in a sweeping
dawn operation targeting Kurdish separatists.
(AP, 12/24/09)
2009 Syria’s population
numbered about 22 million people, including about 1.5 million Kurds.
(Econ, 11/28/09, p.50)
2010 Jan 22, Some 124 refugees,
who said they are Kurds and Tunisians, landed on the southern shore
of Corsica after a lengthy journey at sea.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Feb 21, Iranian state
television reported that intelligence agents have killed four
members of an armed Kurdish separatist group near the Kurdish town
of Sardasht. The report accused the four of killing three policemen
in a clash on Dec 26.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Spain Hokman
Joma tried to hit Turkey’s PM Erdogan with a shoe as the Turkish
leader got into a car during a visit to the southern city of
Seville. Hokman shouted "Long live Kurdistan" in Spanish before
being arrested. In June the Syrian Kurd was sentenced to three years
in jail in Spain.
(AP, 9/22/10)
2010 Mar 21, Syrian police
opened fire at a group of Kurds celebrating the new year, killing at
least one person despite signs that tensions were easing between the
government and its restive Kurdish minority.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Apr 30, Kurdish rebels
killed four Turkish soldiers and wounded seven others in eastern
Turkey in the largest attack on troops in several months.
(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 May 3, In Iraq two
American soldiers died from injuries sustained in separate incidents
unrelated to combat. Sardasht Othman (23), a Kurdish journalist, was
kidnapped in front of the campus of University of Salahuddin in the
regional capital of Irbil. His handcuffed and bullet-riddled body
was found four days later outside the Kurdish region in Mosul.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, In Iran 5 Kurdish
rebels, including two women, were killed after they battled Iran's
elite Revolutionary Guards in the western province of Kermanshah.
(AFP, 5/5/10)
2010 May 7, The Turkish air
force struck Kurdish rebel hideouts in neighboring northern Iraq
after an attack inside Turkey left two soldiers dead.
(AFP, 5/8/10)
2010 May 9, Iran hanged five
Kurdish activists, including one woman, convicted of membership of
armed opposition groups and involvement in bombings.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 12, In Iraq more than
a thousand Kurds poured into the streets of the northern Iraqi city
of Sulaimaniyah in a growing wave of outrage, blaming authorities
for the kidnapping and murder of a young Kurdish journalist. A late
night car bomb tore through a cafe in Baghdad's Sadr City
neighborhood killing nine people. It appeared to have detonated
prematurely, also blowing up three suspected militants in the
vehicle. The dead included young people who had gathered to drink
tea and play dominoes. A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol
in Baghdad's central al-Nahda square, killing a bystander and
wounding 8 others, including five policemen. An Iraqi army
lieutenant was shot dead by a sniper in the afternoon while manning
a checkpoint in New Baghdad.
(AP, 5/12/10)(AP, 5/13/10)(SFC, 5/13/10,
p.A2)(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 20, Twenty Turkish
warplanes bombed Kurdish rebels in northwestern Iraq.
(SFC, 5/21/10, p.A2)
2010 May 29, A Kurdish
newspaper said imprisoned Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan has
accused Turkey of ignoring his calls to establish dialogue with his
rebels and that he would withdraw from the process, leaving his
rebel command in charge.
(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 May 29, Turkey’s military
said 3 security forces members were killed and two soldiers were
wounded in clashes with Kurdish rebels in southeast Turkey.
(Reuters, 5/29/10)
2010 May 31, Kurdish rebels
launched a rocket attack on a military vehicle near naval base in
southern Turkey, killing six soldiers and wounding seven.
(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 Jun 4, Kurdish rebels
based in northern Iraq announced they had ended their unilateral
ceasefire with Turkey a day after Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud
Barzani met Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and pledged
"all efforts" to stop rising rebel violence.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 5, A senior Kurdish
official in northern Iraq said Iranian troops have crossed the Iraqi
border in pursuit of Iranian Kurdish rebels. Jabar Yawar, a deputy
minister in the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq, said
that 35 Iranian soldiers remain in the Iraqi village of Perdunaz
after crossing the border on June 3.
(AP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 10, An Iranian
state-owned newspaper said three policemen in western Iran have been
killed by a roadside bomb detonated by Kurdish rebels. Members of
the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK) were blamed.
(AP, 6/10/10)
2010 Jun 16, Human Rights Watch
called on Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq to ban the practice
of female genital mutilation, and said in a new report that the
majority of women in the self-ruled region undergo the medically
risky and emotionally painful procedure.
(AP, 6/16/10)
2010 Jun 18, Turkey's military
said it killed as many as 120 Kurdish rebels in an air raid on rebel
hideouts in northern Iraq last month and a daylong incursion by
elite commandos into Iraq this week. Maj. Gen. Fahri Kir said
another 30 Kurdish rebels were killed inside Turkey since March in
anti-rebel operations. He said the Turkish losses were 43 in the
same period.
(AP, 6/18/10)
2010 Jun 19, Turkish warplanes
launched air raids at suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern
Iraq after a rebel attack on a military outpost in Turkey touched
off clashes in which eight soldiers and 12 PKK rebel fighters died.
(AP, 6/19/10)
2010 Jun 20, Turkish forces
pushed into northern Iraq, killing 4 people, including a girl (15),
as they hit back against hideouts of Kurdish rebels who killed 12
soldiers over the last 2 days.
(AFP, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 21, Turkish commando
units rappelled down from helicopters and mechanized infantry units
blocked escape routes of Kurdish rebels in a major operation along
the Iraqi border.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 22, In Turkey Kurdish
rebels detonated a remote-controlled bomb in Istanbul, killing 5
people and wounding 12 on a bus carrying military personnel and
their families.
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jul 1, The Turkish
military said fighting near the border with Iraq killed 12 Kurdish
guerrillas, 2 government soldiers and 3 government-paid village
guards. Clashes erupted after rebels fired long range weapons and
rockets at a military unit in Slirt province.
(WSJ, 7/2/10, p.A10)
2010 Jul 13, Iraqi Oil Minister
Hussain al-Shahristani said the cabinet had decided to summon
representatives of the Kurdish regional government to discuss oil
smuggling to Iran and "to put an end to it, as it harms Iraq's
national and economic interests." Reports about the oil smuggling
surfaced just over a week after the US imposed new sanctions barring
the export of refined fuels to Iran.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 20, Kurdish rebels
killed six Turkish soldiers and wounded 15 in an overnight raid on a
military outpost along the border with Iraq. Another soldier died in
a separate attack.
(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Aug 10, In Turkey
suspected Kurdish rebels blew up part of an Iraqi-Kurdish pipeline
killing 2 people and cutting the flow of oil in Sirnak province.
(SFC, 8/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 13, In Iran PJAK
Kurdish rebels killed a commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards
and two Islamist militiamen in clashes near northwestern Orumieh
city.
(AP, 8/14/10)
2010 Sep 4, Iran’s hardline
Kayhan newspaper reported that security forces have killed four
members of an outlawed Kurdish group in the western province of
Kordestan. Nasrin Sotoudeh (45) was summoned by official notice to
Tehran's Evin Prison, and did return home. He has represented
opposition activists and political figures on suspicion of spreading
propaganda against the ruling system.
(AFP, 9/5/10)(AP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 16, In Turkey a
roadside bomb attack killed 10 people traveling on a minibus near
the village of Gecitli in the rugged Hakkari province, where Kurdish
guerrillas have been fighting for autonomy for decades.
(AP, 9/16/10)
2010 Sep 22, Iran’s pro-reform
Sharq daily said that Emadoddin Baghi (48), a human rights activist,
was convicted of "spreading propaganda" against the ruling
establishment as well as planning to "violate national security." He
was sentenced to 6 years in prison. Baghi has been on trial or in
jail almost continually since 2000 over similar charges. In the
northwest a bomb exploded at a military parade in Mahabad killing 12
people. One official blamed Kurdish separatists who have fought
Iranian forces in the area for decades.
(AP, 9/22/10)(Reuters, 9/26/10)
2010 Sep 26, Iran media said
elite Revolutionary Guards said they had killed the "main elements"
behind the Sep 22 bomb attack in the Mahabad. Gen. Abdolrasoul
Mahmoudabadi of the elite Revolutionary Guards said the "terrorists"
were killed the previous day in a clash "beyond the border" and that
his forces were still in pursuit of two men who escaped the ambush.
(Reuters, 9/26/10)(AP, 9/26/10)
2010 Sep 30, The Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) rebel group extended a ceasefire with Turkey by
one month in a move it said is aimed at giving a chance to efforts
to end a war that has killed 40,000 people.
(Reuters, 9/30/10)
2010 Oct 7, In Iran a pair of
gunmen opened fire on a police patrol in its Kurdish region, killing
four officers and a bystander.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 31, In Turkey a
suspected suicide bomber wounded 15 officers and 17 civilians in
Istanbul's main square, as an extended unilateral ceasefire by the
separatist PKK came to an end. The radical Kurdistan Freedom Falcons
(TAK) later claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 10/31/10)(AP, 11/1/10)(AFP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 1, Turkey's main
Kurdish rebel group extended a truce until elections next summer,
denying responsibility for a suicide attack in Istanbul thought to
have been the work of its own hardliners.
(AP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 4, Thousands of
Iranians chanted "Death to America" as they staged a mass protest
against the "Great Satan" to mark the 31st anniversary of the
capture of the American embassy by Islamist students. Iran reported
the arrest of four Kurdish rebels of the banned Komala group, who
worked for commander Jalil Fattahi, a militant based in Britain. The
were arrested in Iran's western city of Marivan.
(AFP, 11/4/10)
2011 Jan 5, In Turkey
authorities searching for mass graves of Kurds, who disappeared in
the 1990s, unearthed the bones of eight people in a field in Bitlis
province in southeast Turkey.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Feb 17, In Iraq Kurdish
security forces opened fire in Sulaimaniyah on a crowd of protesters
surrounding the headquarters of the party affiliated with Kurdish
President Massoud Barzani. At least five people were injured in the
incident. Hundreds of demonstrators massed in the southern city of
Basra to demand the local governor's ouster. Protesters in Nasir
stormed a local government building. Gunmen in a speeding car shot
and killed a spokesman for the provincial government in the northern
city of Mosul.
(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 20, In Iraq gunmen
burst into the Kurdish NRT television station in Sulaimaniyah,
shooting up the equipment and setting fire to the building,
apparently in retaliation for footage they aired earlier in the week
of a deadly protest.
(AP, 2/20/11)
2011 Feb 24, In Iraq a suicide
bomber trying to assassinate the deputy head of the provincial
council killed 11 people including 7 policemen and a bodyguard in
Ramadi, Anbar province. Security forces killed al-Nasser Lideen
Allah Abu Suleiman, the top military leader of an al-Qaida front
group, surrounding his hideout and firing shots that blew up his
booby-trapped getaway car in Hit, Anbar province. The Kurdish
government sent thousands of its troops into positions around Kirkuk
saying it feared that demonstrations planned for the next day could
turn violent.
(AP, 2/24/11)(AP, 2/25/11)(AP, 3/9/11)
2011 Mar 15, In northern Iraq 2
top Kurdish politicians resigned from local government in what
appeared to be a political maneuver to challenge Arabs for control
of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Apr 7, Syria’s Pres.
Bashar Assad granted citizenship to thousands of Kurds living in a
northeastern province. Kurds, the largest ethnic minority in Syria,
made up 15 percent of the country's 23 million population and have
long complained of neglect and discrimination. Assad also sacked
Governor Mohammad Iyad Ghaza of central Homs province, the scene of
clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in
the past three weeks.
(AP, 4/7/11)
2011 Apr 17, Iraqi police
opened fire on stone-throwing crowds protesting corruption in the
northern Kurdish region. At least 35 people were wounded.
(SFC, 4/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 19, In Turkey Kurdish
protesters clashed with police in two cities and the main Kurdish
party threatened to boycott the upcoming election because of a
decision the previous day to bar some Kurdish candidates.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 20, In southeastern
Turkey one person was killed when police opened fire on Kurdish
protestors in Bismil town.
(AFP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 23, A Kurdish
protester (28) died of gunshot wounds, becoming the tenth person
killed in more than two months of rallies in Iraq's northern
autonomous region. Hardi Farukh was wounded by a bullet to the head
during demonstrations on April 18 in Sulaimaniyah.
(AFP, 4/23/11)
2011 May 14, Turkey's military
in Sirnak province killed 12 Kurdish rebels over the last 24 hours
who trying to infiltrate the country from northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/14/11)
2011 Jun 2, New York-based
Human Rights Watch said Iraq's central government and regional
Kurdish leaders are beating and illegally detaining protesters to
try to stop demonstrations calling for reforms.
(AP, 6/2/11)
2011 Jun 21, Iraqi Kurdistan
approved a draft law banning female genital mutilation by the
regional government. The Family Violence Bill has to be ratified by
the regional president, Massud Barzani.
(AFP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jul 6, In Iraq two police
officers were killed in a suicide bombing outside a car dealership
in al-Hedaid, just outside Baqouba, Diyala province. Authorities
uncovered a mass grave with 900 corpses near the central city of
Diwaniyah, believed to be Kurds killed during the rule of ousted
dictator Saddam Hussein.
(AP, 7/6/11)(AFP, 7/6/11)
2011 Jul 14, An umbrella group
that includes Turkey's Kurdish party proclaimed Kurdish autonomy in
Diyarbakir, hours after a clash left 13 soldiers and seven Kurdish
guerrillas dead.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 15, Turkish
prosecutors launched an investigation into a Kurdish proclamation of
autonomy in the country's southeast as the military deployed elite
forces to the region where tensions are running high following the
deadliest clash between troops and rebels in about three years.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 17, Several Iranian
Kurdish rebels based in Iraq were wounded in hours of clashes with
Tehran's forces along the two countries' border.
(AFP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 18, Iran’s state news
said Revolutionary Guard forces have taken control of three bases of
an Iranian Kurdish opposition group in neighboring Iraq and that "a
large number" of members of the Iranian Kurdish opposition group
PEJAK have been killed in fierce ongoing clashes over the past two
days. PEJAK claimed to have killed 53 Iranian soldiers and wounded
43 while only two PEJAK members were killed and seven wounded in
clashes.
(AP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 25, Iranian forces
shelled suspected rebel outposts in Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish
region, killing two Iraqi civilians.
(AP, 7/25/11)
2011 Jul 28, In Iraq a suicide
bomber and a car bomb struck an Iraqi bank in Tikrit where policemen
were picking up their paychecks, killing 12 and wounding 34 people.
An Iraqi Kurd boy (10) was killed in shelling by Tehran's forces of
Iranian Kurdish separatist bases in Battas, northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/28/11)(AP, 7/29/11)
2011 Aug 3, Turkey said it
would put 106 more Kurdish politicians on trial for alleged
terrorist propaganda, choosing to go ahead with prosecutions despite
lingering tensions over the trial of dozens of others accused of
fanning separatist violence.
(AP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 17, In Turkey Kurdish
PKK rebels ambushed a military convoy in Cukurca township near the
border with Iraq killing 9 soldiers. Officials vowed strong military
retaliation. Turkey's air force attacked 60 suspected Kurdish rebel
targets in northern Iraq. The military it vowed to continue the
assault until the guerrilla group is "rendered ineffective."
(AP, 8/17/11)(AP, 8/18/11)(Econ, 8/27/11, p.43)
2011 Aug 18, In southern Turkey
the PKK attacked police and military stations in simultaneous
overnight rocket strikes in Siirt province, killing two soldiers and
wounding three civilians. Turkey's air force attacked 28 suspected
Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, in a second day of
cross-border strikes in retaliation for stepped up attacks by the
guerrillas.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 19, Turkey's military
hit 85 rebel targets with artillery fire. Warplanes bombed 20
suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in a third day of
cross-border strikes.
(AP, 8/20/11)
2011 Aug 21, Turkish airstrikes
on suspected rebel targets in northern Iraq killed seven Iraqi
civilians, including five children and a woman, in an attack on
Kortak mountain. Police used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse
Kurdish protesters who tried to march to a main square in Istanbul
to denounce the Turkish raids. In demonstrators marched to protest
the PKK.
(AP, 8/21/11)
2011 Aug 23, Turkey's military
said air strikes on suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq
this week have killed an estimated 90 to 100 guerrillas and warned
that it would press ahead with offensives against the group both
inside Turkey and across the border.
(AP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 28, Nechirvan Barzani,
deputy chief of the most powerful political party in Iraq's
autonomous Kurdish region, called on separatist groups in the area
to lay down their arms in an interview published.
(AFP, 8/28/11)
2011 Aug 29, Turkey’s military
said its air strikes and artillery fire on suspected Kurdish rebel
targets this month killed up to 160 guerrillas.
(SFC, 8/30/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 3, A young Kurdish
shepherd was killed by an Iranian sniper on the Iraq-Iran border.
Iran also shelled the border area, appearing to target bases of the
Iranian Kurdish rebel group PEJAK, which has been involved in
sporadic cross-border clashes with Iranian forces in recent years.
(AP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 3, Around 50
expatriated Syrian Kurds gathered in Sweden for a two-day conference
on how to strengthen Kurds inside Syria and get them more involved
in efforts to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's regime.
(AFP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 5, Iran said its
Revolutionary Guard soldiers have killed at least 30 members of
Kurdish opposition group in fighting outside the border city of
Sardasht in an operation that began on Sep 2. Inside Iraq a PEJAK
spokesman declared an immediate, unilateral cease-fire, which Iran
rejected.
(AP, 9/5/11)
2011 Sep 11, Iraq's autonomous
Kurdistan region halted crude exports, nearly a week after it
rejected a new oil and gas law approved by the central government.
(AFP, 9/11/11)
2011 Sep 12, Kurdish rebels
attacked a police station and a paramilitary police headquarters
near Turkey’s border with Iraq killing 5 people including 3
civilians.
(SFC, 9/13/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 21, Turkey reportedly
bombed the main Kurdish rebel base in northern Iraq and chased
rebels in a mountainous area in the southeast in response to
escalated attacks by the autonomy-seeking guerrillas.
(AP, 9/21/11)
2011 Sep 24, Kurdish rebels
attacked a Turkish army outpost, killing 5 soldiers and wounding 10
in the country's southeast. Three rebels also were killed.
(AP, 9/25/11)
2011 Sep 28, In Turkey a
pro-Kurdish party said it is ending its four-month-old boycott of
parliament, even as tensions grew over a surge in attacks by Kurdish
separatist rebels.
(AP, 9/28/11)
2011 Oct 4, Turkish police
detained over 140 pro-Kurdish political activists in a nationwide
sweep. The detainees included a number of elected mayors in the
Kurdish southeast.
(SFC, 10/5/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 7, Syrian security
forces opened fire at protesters in several parts of the country,
killing at least eight people and wounding scores. Leading
opposition figure Riad Seif was beaten up by pro-government gunmen
and rushed to a hospital in Damascus. Russia’s Pres. Dmitry Medvedev
told Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to either reform or resign. In
Qamishli Mashaal Tammo, a prominent and charismatic Kurdish
opposition figure, was gunned down by masked gunmen.
(AP, 10/7/11)(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 8, Syrian security
forces opened fire on tens of thousands of mourners who turned out
for the funeral of a slain Kurdish opposition leader in Qamishli,
killing at least 5 people. Kurds, the largest ethnic minority in
Syria, make up 15% of the country's 23 million people and have long
complained of neglect and discrimination.
(AP, 10/8/11)(AP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 10, Turkish air raids
in northern Iraq reportedly killed 7 Kurdish rebels including three
senior operatives.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 13, Turkey's foreign
minister said that Iraq should move to prevent Kurdish attacks on
his country from Iraqi soil as the two countries renewed their
commitment to fight the rebels.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 16, In Iraq hundreds
rallied in the disputed town of Khanaqin to demand the reversal of a
central government ruling barring the flag of the autonomous Kurdish
region in official buildings.
(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 18, Turkey shelled
northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, in the first report of
Turkish bombardment there in more than two weeks. The shelling began
the previous evening. A roadside blast killed five policemen and two
civilians in Turkey's southeast Bitlis province.
(AFP, 10/18/11)(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 19, Turkish soldiers,
air force bombers and helicopter gunships launched an incursion into
northern Iraq, hours after Kurdish rebels killed 24 soldiers and
wounded 18 in attacks along the border. The United States and NATO
both issued statements supporting the offensive, the largest in more
than three years.
(AP, 10/19/11)(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, About 10,000 elite
Turkish soldiers took part in a ground offensive against Kurdish
rebels in southeastern Turkey and across the border in Iraq, making
it the nation's largest attack on the insurgents in more than three
years.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 21, Turkish jets kept
up bombing raids on Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq overnight,
as the rebels confirmed that some Turkish troops crossed into Iraq.
Turkey and Iran vowed to collaborate against the PKK and its Iranian
wing, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, or PJAK, during a visit
by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
(AFP, 10/21/11)(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, Turkey’s military
said its troops over the last 2 days have killed at least 49 Kurdish
rebels in a valley near the Iraqi border, as hundreds of troops also
pursued Kurdish fighters within northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 25, In Turkey crowds
of Kurds pelted journalists and police with stones in the quake-hit
city of Van as their anger at the media's coverage of the disaster
boiled over. The stoning of the reporters in the eponymous
provincial capital, which left several people injured, was brought
to a halt only after police used pepper-spray.
(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Nov 12, Turkish commandos
in civilian clothes slipped onto the Kartepe, a hijacked passenger
ferry, and posed as hostages before fatally shooting a suspected
Kurdish rebel carrying explosives in a 12-hour drama that ended
before dawn.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 13, Turkish warplanes
bombed the Qandil border area in Iraqi Kurdistan for about an hour.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Dec 3, The London-based
Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organization (IKWRO) reported
that more than 2,800 so-called honor attacks, punishments for
bringing shame on the family, were recorded by Britain's police in
2010.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 19, A Turkish news
agency reported that security forces may have killed as many as 20
Kurdish separatist rebels in the country's southeast.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 20, Turkish police
detained 48 people, including journalists, as part of a growing
investigation into a Kurdish group that prosecutors accuse of links
to Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 12/20/11)(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 24, Turkish
authorities released an AFP photographer, along with 12 other people
who were detained as part of an investigation into a group
prosecutors accuse of having links to Kurdish rebels. A court
ordered 35 other suspects formally arrested pending trial over their
alleged involvement in the Union of Kurdistan Communities.
(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 28, Turkish warplanes
killed at least 34 people in an air strike on the Iraq border in an
attack which a pro-Kurdish political party described as a "massacre"
of civilians. Ankara's joint military command said in a statement
that its jets bombed an area inside Iraq "regularly used" by PKK
rebels. Those killed were smugglers aged 18-28, who routinely
brought in Iraqi fuel and cigarettes with the full knowledge of
local authorities. On Jan 2 Turkey said it will compensate the
families of the civilians mistakenly killed in the airstrike.
(AFP, 12/29/11)(AP, 1/3/12)(Econ, 1/7/12, p.46)
2012 Jan 19, Turkish
authorities exhumed the bodies of three Kurds near the village of
Yagizoymak as part of their investigation into alleged extrajudicial
killings by Turkish security forces in the 1990s. Lawyer Ridvan
Dalmis, who witnessed the excavation, said the remains allegedly are
those of civilians who were killed by security forces in June 1993
and hastily buried by Kurdish villagers before they were forced to
evacuate the area.
(AP, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 28, Iraqi Kurdish
leader Massud Barzani backed minority Kurds in Syria, who have
rallied against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad during 10
months of nationwide protests. He spoke at a two-day conference of
Syrian Kurds in the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Arbil.
(AFP, 1/28/12)
2012 Feb 11, Turkish warplanes
bombed suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 2/12/12)
2012 Feb 13, A clash in
Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast has left 15 Kurdish rebels and two
Turkish soldiers dead.
(AP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 27, Iraqi Kurdistan
said it has granted refugee status to 30 Kurdish Syrian troops who
defected to the region in the first such instance in the revolt
against Bashar al-Assad's regime.
(AFP, 2/27/12)
2012 Mar 8, Turkey's air force
carried out air strikes on border areas of north Iraq.
(AFP, 3/9/12)
2012 Mar 18, In Turkey
thousands of Kurds massed in Diyarbakir and Istanbul to celebrate
the Kurdish new year (Nowruz). A Kurdish politician and Turkish
policeman died as riot police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds.
(Econ, 3/24/12, p.54)
2012 Mar 23, Turkish forces
killed 15 female Kurdish rebel fighters in Bitlis province.
(SSFC, 3/25/12, p.A6)
2012 Mar 29, In Bulgaria Massud
Barzani, the leader of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan, sought
investment in the region's farming, health and construction sectors
during a meeting with PM Boyko Borisov.
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Apr 2, Iraq’s Kurdish
region said it has halted oil exports over a payment quarrel with
the central government, which reportedly has failed to send any
money since May even as the region has been exporting 50,000 barrels
per day.
(SFC, 4/3/12, p.A2)
2012 Apr 5, In south-eastern
Turkey overnight blasts temporarily shut down a pipeline pumping oil
from Iraq. Kurdish rebels were suspected to be behind the
explosions.
(AFP, 4/5/12)
2012 Apr 5, US President Barack
Obama dropped in on a meeting between Vice President Joe Biden and
Massud Barzani, the visiting leader of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish
region. Barzani, also met with US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
(AFP, 4/5/12)
Go to
http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Kurds
End of file.